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ghosts

Misty is one of my most favorite puppet characters to perform and a delight to draw. Saturday night, The Tomato Gang and I were sitting in Joanne and Jason’s living room watching Back to the Future. I had my Halloween 2015 Sketchbook on me and since I can’t sit still anymore without drawing, I was scribbling away as I enjoyed the movie. The end result should make for a few entertaining posts.

and our newest addition (who still hasn’t officially worn the costume yet, but we have appointed it),our friend Kyle, as The Caretaker.

These wee stockings are about the size of a child’s sock, and are made almost completely of felt, with rhinestone eyes, and blue and gold rickrack for trimming. The letters are plastic and were, oddly enough, a Goodwill find just days before I undertook this project.

Steve and I traveled to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens yesterday to view the scarecrows. I admit, I was prepared for the worst, after the staff,crowds,and weather mangled my entries last year. However,The Mummycorn was not only fully intact, but looking great. It was also in a spot in which certain photos made it look truly as if it were stalking through the woods! Check these out:

At the Southern Museum in Kennesaw, Vapor and I did almost sixteen performances in two consecutive nights, adding a couple of shows due to popular demand. The occasion was an event called “The Haunted Museum”, which was for older kids and adults, and an all-ages Halloween festival took place on the same site. The show was called “The Tale of the Screaming Skull”, and uses total audience participation. I performed it in an adorable little depot across the street from the museum,which made the perfect puppet theater.

I made hats, each with the face of a character in the story, and once the audience knew what as going on, the kids were falling all over themselves wanting to play characters in the play. We had a great time, and my sixteen different dads out of the audience, who played my Screaming Skull, were terrific.

Many thanks to Laurel, who coordinated the Halloween festival and treated me like royalty while i was there. Steve also came on the second night, dressed as a Ghostbuster.

I’ve been working very hard this Halloween season, hence my sad, sad little Halloween countdown. And my Mummycorn scarecrow did NOT win a prize at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens(getting a little bit tired of all the work, effort and money going into something that gets completely destroyed, truthfully).

They are trying something radically new, using me this year. After hearing the tales told by the six different storytellers around the antebellum plantation buildings, guests finally arrive at the end of the tour and gift shop. There, a more humorous presentation is given, usually told by a sort of carnival barker-type person(my new coworker Jon!) who pretty much gives a commercial for the Tour’s creators, ART Station. ATOSG is really a fundraiser for ART Station, and we also must mention the sponsors, talk about the items to be found in the Ghostly Gift Shop and so forth. But the main part of the spiel contains very corny ghost jokes and puns, and I thought that this might be a perfect vehicle for one of my ghost puppets. I inquired about it to ART Station, and to my great surprise, they were interested. Long story short, I auditioned for them and brought Vapor, although I ended up using Misty, a new female ghost puppet created from my ghost called Phantz.

Today I sat and scribbled and glued and worked and figured and sculpted and destroyed, trying to make the puppets I envisioned in my head for The Little Man Show. I really want to do a webshow with very small puppets that are either finger puppets or rod puppets or something else cute and small. I want to make the little sets and props that go with them, too. Nothing I tried today was working, and other things I wanted to try I didn’t have the supplies on hand to do.

Then, I got out a ziploc bag full of white cabinet knobs that I had purchased at a thrift store, and magic began to happen.

Wiggly eyes, a scrap of white fur,a cork and a Sharpie smile produced this little fellow, still nameless.

Wiggle eyes, a wooden bead and a tuft of feathers gave me Felicia Frizzly.

More wiggly eyes, a tiny purple pompom and a giant light blue pompom produced Emma Powder.

Here’s all of them. Notice that one wears a snappy bottlecap hat, and one has blue hair in the shape of Bozo the Clown’s. I really like them; I think I could quite possibly turn this into a little ghost show. 😀